[Q] How can we stop Android from phoning home?

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Many of you have probably already read the news:
Apple, Google Receive Phone Users' Locations

I must say, they're doing it to a degree beyond what most of us may have assumed was taking place.

How can we stop this? Do we know if cooked ROMs also do it?

Update 4/25/2011 5:00PM ET:
- Here's how I stop Android from phoning home.
- I dont' use this, but here's a sweet google removal script.
- A seperate thread for discussion: Why the data Android sends to Google is less anonymous than Apple's implementation

Update 4/26/2011 9:25PM ET:
- [Q] How do we protect our Android device from the CelleBrite UFED?

Update 6/8/2011 5:24PM ET:
- Use Autostarts to stop apps from opening behind your back!

Its not that they care where you are personally, you're more of an anonomous statistic to them. They use these huge mountains of collected data to decide which markets are the most potentially lucrative fir them to invest their zillions of dollars of advertising and marketing money into. You and I will likely never be directly affected by our locations being disclosed, save for more accurate search suggestions from our google search widgets.

Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

I'll ask again to try and keep this thread on topic. Anyone who wants to discuss why the companies do it is free to start another thread and discuss that there.


How can we stop this? Do we know if cooked ROMs also do it?

Droidwall...

I was so mad when I heard what they were doing, I wanted to throw my phone out the window. How is it even legal for them to do this, regardless of where its anonymous or not its still bs and I want that crap off my phone. I am a newb to the whole android and software thing and I wish I could help.

There out to find your house and steal your prized poodle. Honestly if its for marketing then it what it is. Honestly if you want to get mad at something, get mad at T-Mobile for throttling 4G speeds. I see what your saying but I would like them putting the right ads for my area and know quickest way to the quickie-e-mart.

Also we are using their OS.

Every other OS is monitored also.

Sent from my UD Glacier

What's with the useless comments defending these companies?

Can anyone answer the question - DO cooked ROMs also track your location?

According to this article, Android tracks the last 50 mobile masts and last 200 WiFi networks.

This is a problem, anyone have the solution?

I found this comment on one of the articles, does this explain it?

All mobile phones keep a record of the locations and unique IDs of the most recent mobile masts that it has communicated with. It's called the neighbour cell list and normally it enables the phone to connect to the network more quickly than it otherwise would. GSM mobile phones have done this since about 1992.

To see the benefits storing the neighbour cell list compare the time it takes a mobile to find a network after it is switched on in a new location, e.g., after a long flight, with the time it takes to find a network when the phone is switched on in the location where it was switched off.

The difference in the iPhone case is that the iPhone is keeping this information for such a long period of time.

Originally Posted by wrapper

I found this comment on one of the articles, does this explain it?

That is about the iPhone storing, not about a device sending GPS location data day and night.

So far, the only mentioned potential solution is Droidwall.

I'm going to play around with that.

There's a related app named HiSurfing, but one reviewer says that does not work as well as DroidWall. Seems DroidWall does a better job of keeping things from slipping out when they've been blocked.